WI: African Manufacturing?

What if European nations had focused more on developing industrial manufacturing within their respective African colonies, rather than the system of cash crop, resource extraction and home manufacturing of OTL?

(The goal being the manufacture of cheaper goods for European consumers rather than higher value goods for colonial subjects)

What effect would this flipped economic model have on the global economy leading up to 1899?
 
The goal being the manufacture of cheaper goods for European consumers rather than higher value goods for colonial subjects
I'm not completely sure why they would want to achieve this goal as opposed to the alternative, or why relatively sparsely populated and supposedly "primitive" Africa would be chosen to do so.
 
What would motivate the European colonizers to favour the colonies over the metropole? Particularly since the home country is where the leaders live.
 
What would motivate the European colonizers to favour the colonies over the metropole? Particularly since the home country is where the leaders live.

Same reason, I guess, hyper industrialized nations now incentivize off shoring to China?

Cheap goods (especially consumer goods) = happier citizens
 
I don't think this is reasonable under the colonial merchantile system for most types of manufacturing. There would have to be some signifigant butterflies of some sort.

Also, Africa did not possess overly many "usable" rivers that were navigable and provided water power. Geographically, Africa was not well set up for industrialization with the technology of the day.

Lacking such a good natural transportation system would harm any industrilization. I'm not sure what the raw material situation was like and if that would hinder advancement.

For example, for a steel plant, you need local iron ore, coke and fuels, good transportation, etc, etc, etc.

I don't know how many locations in Africa had this convenient local mix of necessary elements (akin to Pennsylvania, Belgium, Parts fo Germany and Belgium, etc) in close proximity.
 
What effect would this flipped economic model have on the global economy leading up to 1899?

That's too early, African colonies were barely consolidated at that point :)

Basically, for that to happen, you need a stabilised industrial base with a big middle class who can absorb those higher value goods you mentionned.

However, there were some efforts to industrialise African colonies in the 20's
 
I don't think this is reasonable under the colonial merchantile system for most types of manufacturing. There would have to be some signifigant butterflies of some sort.

Also, Africa did not possess overly many "usable" rivers that were navigable and provided water power. Geographically, Africa was not well set up for industrialization with the technology of the day.

Lacking such a good natural transportation system would harm any industrilization. I'm not sure what the raw material situation was like and if that would hinder advancement.

For example, for a steel plant, you need local iron ore, coke and fuels, good transportation, etc, etc, etc.

I don't know how many locations in Africa had this convenient local mix of necessary elements (akin to Pennsylvania, Belgium, Parts fo Germany and Belgium, etc) in close proximity.

Well surely shoddy garment factories could be built? (The reduction in labor costs for that alone would be astronomical the average European consumer)

Or possible large scale mines?
 
Africa's potential as a hub of manufacturing is near non-existent until the 1960s or 1970s. Transportation costs, not just the literal costs, but more importantly time of transport and communication delays destroys your ability to manufacture much from Africa, particularly if you have local alternatives. And its just much easier to rape the land than it is to make improvements.
 
That's too early, African colonies were barely consolidated at that point :)

Basically, for that to happen, you need a stabilised industrial base with a big middle class who can absorb those higher value goods you mentionned.

However, there were some efforts to industrialise African colonies in the 20's

Thanks for your answer Tanc, but think that's a dubious assumption.
The collapsed cost of manufacturing such goods (if they were located in the colonies and using cheap colonial labor) would offset the need to have a somewhat wealthy middle class to purchase said goods I think.
 
The consumer economy as you describe it didn't really exist until after the second world war. Nobody thought about cheaper goods as an end in and of itself. Governments were more concerned with full employment.
 
There is some precedent for industrializing the colonies. Japan encouraged the industrialization of Manchukuo (all the infrastructure owned by Japanese zaibatsus, of course) in order to soak up excess Chinese labour and hopefully create a Chinese collaborationist class. Until the Marco Polo Bridge incident, much of these manufactured goods were dumped in...China proper. Hopefully to obstruct Chinese industrialization.

Maybe post-war, Portugal will try a similar policy in Angola or Mozambique, and in order to protect its own industrial employment, convinces the US and other powers to permit cheap textile imports from its African colonies. They would spin it as fighting against communism in Africa, or something. The US was soooo naive in that sense.

These goods are then targeted by boycott campaigns similar to the ones against South Africa.
 
GlobalHumanism said:
Thanks for your answer Tanc, but think that's a dubious assumption.
The collapsed cost of manufacturing such goods (if they were located in the colonies and using cheap colonial labor) would offset the need to have a somewhat wealthy middle class to purchase said goods I think.

It is an assumption all right but hear my justification. Before then, the massive inequalities in Western societies meant you didn't need to go abroad for cheap labour, you had it right there with proletarians.

Now, let's say pure cost of labour is inferior in African colonies (which is very possible), you'd still need to import machines and technicians (a problem faced by African countries in late 60's). The whole industrial fabric isn't there.
Assuming the industrial fabric is there, you can maybe have an inferior price EXW (ex factory) but in the EXW price you have to include transport cost. Problem is that African logistical infrastructure isn't geared toward consumer goods, more mining and extraction. Not a big issue, you can have factories on coastal cities, very common really. Although, shipping costs are quite high and it takes time, meaning that with the communication infrastructure of the day, it was hard to coordinate.

Now it could work if there was a local market but Africa is sparesly populated compared to Europe, and that combined with the lack of transport infrastructure makes it hard to transport them inland, limiting their profitability. WHat needs to happen is big communities on locals that create a local market for those goods, as happened in Algeria and Morocco (fish canners come to mind).

I'd have to research to see if there was any industry in Indochina since there was high density population with relative income. I don't really remember there was, in rubber maybe? I'd have to check.

Another issue you'd have is metropolitan policies. Given the issues outlined above, you'd need some kickstarting from the central state. As you said, such a system could benefit the consumer in a colonial economy (even if I'm not convinced). However, it wouldn't particularly benefit the partie colonial (in a French context) who already makes money from extraction and agriculture. And it really wouldn't be supported by unions and factories on the mainland who'd see it as a risk to their employment.


Woof, seems like I got carried away a bit, but logistic and colonialism are the two main stuff I'm interested in :D
 
Woof, seems like I got carried away a bit, but logistic and colonialism are the two main stuff I'm interested in :D

No way man, this was an awesome read.
Wish there more, as I am fascinated but such things as well :cool:

Definitely come back with what you find in your research if and when you have the time.
 
By the early 1970s there were Portuguese industrialists envisioning the eventual transfer of industrial concerns such as textiles to Portuguese Africa. During the last days of colonialism (1961-1974), the industries in Angola and Mozambique grew rapidly, as the Portuguese government liberalised the economy and sought international capital into Angola and Mozambique so that the territories would develop more rapidly and western multinationals would have a stake in wanting to preserve the status quo. I was able to find some footage from the early 1970s showing the industries.

Below at 1:40 you can see the textile industry had started to grow in Vila Pery (Chimoio) in Mozambique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFuqzi4skxo

Also, at 1:45 below you can see the industrial city of Matola outside of Maputo, it was a planned industrial city with an oil refinery, petrochemicals plants, where rubber products such as tyres were manufactured, also chemical plants, cement and construction materials, etc.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgb7xd_mocambique-final-no-outro-lado-do-tempo_people

In this one you can see the the same in Malanje, Angola at 127:08 along with the mining of iron ore and metals industry in Southern Angola at 128:30 and again at 150:00. This footage was taken in 1973, so it shows the very final days of Portuguese colonialism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODgo8jjFfNQ

Much of this nascent industrialisation was based on the transformation of local raw materials, and the other industries were to satisfy the local and growing consumer population of settlers. The latter included the manufacturing of beer and soft drinks, soaps and detergents, vegetable oils, cigarettes, paper, refined petroleum etc. Angola had the largest industrial boom and by 1973 industry accounted for 41% of its GDP. The largest sector was food packaging/processing (36%), textiles (32%), beverages (11%), chemicals and non-ferrous metals (5%), petrochemicals (4%), and finally paper and pulp (3%).

By world standards, it was still small, but Mozambique's industrial output employed 100,000 people in 1973, however it accounted for 16% of the GDP. Also, more than half of the industrial activity was located in and around the capital of Lourenço Marques. In Angola, Luanda dominated too, but accounted for around 38% of industrial activity as it was more spread out in different cities around the colony.

Below is the Per Capita GDP of Angola, Mozambique, Portugal and compared with some other countries with figures in 1990 International Dollars, these figures come from Angus Maddison's "The World Economy: Historical Statistics".



GDP per Capita 1990
USA $23,201
Portugal $10,826
Brazil $4,920
South Africa (including Independent Homelands) $3,834
Morocco $2,591
Egypt $2,523
Indonesia $2,514
China $1,871
Zimbabwe $1,355
India $1,309
Mozambique $1,114
Nigeria $1,112
Ghana $1,062
Angola $820
Zambia $806

GDP per Capita 1973
United States $16,689
Metropolitan Portugal $7,063
South Africa $4,175
Brazil $3,880
Mozambique $1,873
Angola $1,789
Morocco $1,694
Indonesia $1,490
Rhodesia $1,432
Ghana $1,397
Egypt $1,294
Nigeria $1,262
Zambia $1,062
India $853
China $838

GDP per Capita 1960
United States $11,328
South Africa $3,041
Metropolitan Portugal $2,956
Brazil $2,335
Ghana $1,378
Morocco $1,329
Mozambique $1,327
Angola $1,253
Indonesia $1,012
United Arab Republic (Egypt) $991
Northern Rhodesia $960
Southern Rhodesia $938
Nigeria $820
India $753
China $662
 
Top